Summer Skies Three Planets, Two Bears, And A Triangle Of Stars Are The Main Attractions Of This Celestial Show

July 19, 1984|by RICK MARK, The Morning Call

From Arcturus, stargazers "drive a spike to Spica," the brightest star in Virgo. Spicais closer to setting than Mars or Saturn.

Once you've located the planets, you'll find, surprisingly, that they're easy to spot, even from the middle of Allentown. A good guidepost for locating them is the moon.

The moon will pass Mars on Aug. 4, Sept. 2 and Sept. 30. It will pass Saturn on Aug. 4, Aug. 31 and Sept. 27. The moon will pass just below Jupiter on Aug. 8. It does so again Sept. 4 and Oct. 4. By observing the moon as those dates approach, you can watch it pass by the planets.

And if you keep an eye on the planets through the summer, you'll see how Mars moves away from Saturn. The "wandering" planets caught the eye of people in the most ancient cultures on Earth.

You're on your own for the rest of the constellations. Some, like Hercules, are big but tricky to locate. Some of the smaller ones are more fun. Look especially for Corona Borealis, The Northern Crown, which is high in the west near Arcturus, and for Delphinus, the Dolphin, which is southeast of Aquila.

One of the standards of summertime stargazing will be a disappointment this year. The Perseids meteor shower in August, known for its bright fireballs and for as many as 60 shooting stars an hour, will be washed out by the full moon.

The planet Venus, which can get brighter than Jupiter, passed behind the sun in June, and is now setting only minutes after sunset. By September, the "nearby" planet will be setting later and promises to be a magnificent sight in the evening sky this fall.

By then, Earth will have traveled a quarter of the way around the Sun, and the background of stars we see at night will look very different. The Summer Triangle will be setting; Cassiopeia will be high in the northeast. The Big Dipper will be hard to spot through the trees.